Sunday, March 1, 2015

REVIEW: OSPREY BRITISH PARATROOPER, 1940-1945

Scope – A good introduction to the formation, training,
equipment and second world war campaigns of the British paratroops

Completeness – Good

Appeal – high, nice book

Accuracy – I know of no problems, but am new to the topic.

Describe

During the Second World War, the British decided to respond
to the successful use of German paratroops by creating their own paratrooper
units. This began with the recruitment of volunteers from soldiers from within
the British army. All volunteers from within the pre-existing army ranks, no
man would be forced to join a unit whose duties required them to jump from
airplanes. (It wasn’t until the 1950’s that one could enlist directly into the British
paratroops.) To no one’s surprise, the recruits tended to be highly motivated
and very brave.

The newly formed paratroops wore a distinctive uniform. It
consisted of a special outer tunic whose design reduced the chances of
equipment getting snagged in the parachute, shoes laced on the side and a
maroon beret that showed their elite status. Portions of the uniform, such as
the tunic, were inspired by and largely copied from, those of their German
adversaries. This made sense as it was the effectiveness of the German
paratroops that had arguably inspired the formation of the British units.

The paratroops soon proved themselves to be useful and
important additions to the British forces in several battles. The first of
these was the Bruneval Raid in northern France in 1942. A small group of
paratroopers were dropped into occupied France to occupy a radar station long
enough for technicians to examine it and obtain needed intelligence on its
capabilities, and then make their escape via sea using a Royal Navy pick up
team.

The paratroops also distinguished themselves through their
bravery, skill, and initiative in other campaigns of the war including North
Africa, Italy, and Normandy. The book continues right up to the beginning of
the paratroops service in Greece after the Germans left while civil war
starting to break out in that nation.

Never having had a strong interest in paratroops, I did not
really expect to enjoy this book as much as I did. However, it is an
interesting volume that can appeal to many people in many different ways. Some
will enjoy the story and description of elite troops bravely facing danger and
battle. Others, the stories of eccentric and larger than life personalities (There
is, for instance, a story of a British paratroop officer who not only regularly
carried an umbrella into battle, he also once captured a tank with the
umbrella. OK, it was an Italian tank but it was still an impressive feat.
)

For me much of the appeal of the story came from hearing how
new technology, in this case parachutes, was actively applied during a military
campaign. From the time the decision was made to form British paratroop units
until the end of the war, training and parachuting procedures were continuously
changed and underwent new developments. To me, it was fascinating to learn that the
earliest attempts at training British paratroops, for instance, were done
before there were actually good quality planes whose designs facilitated
parachuting available. One training plane, for instance, was an obsolete bomber
and parachutists were required to crawl down the length of the plane and then
crawl out, head first, through the bomb bay in the rear. Another training plane
had literally had a hole cut in the center of the floor to enable the
parachutists to jump out. To me, these stories of training in the new parachute
technologies and techniques were very interesting.

I was astonished, for instance, to learn that the official
reaction to a parachuting accident, even or especially a fatal one, was to make
the remaining troops jump as soon as possible before fear and trauma had
allegedly set in.

In conclusion, this is a fine book, with much of interest to
those interested in paratroops or the Second World War. It is highly
recommended.

I tend to write several entries on a subject and although admittedly they are of variable quality by following the topic keys then one should get a fairly complete view of what I think on the issue. There's a lot of good information buried here particularly on some obscure subjects related to assisting newly arrived refugees, particularly from Burma. These subjects include furniture donation issues, driver education and even domestic violence. If these issues interest you, follow the internal links, do searches, there's a lot here and I've found that often people search on a subject using google, I've written an answer, but the search engines sent them to some other entry where I discussed only a small part of the issue. So if a subject that interests you has a truly mediocre entry there is probably a good one hidden away as well on different aspects of the same subject You can't get a full picture on the issues covered in this blog by reading just one entry. it wasn't written that way. If you still don't see what you want, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Thank you.

About Me

Journalist, educator, and low level Asian history scholar who dabbles in fiction. Peter Huston is the author of several books, including Scams from the Great Beyond, Tong, Gangs, and Triads,, and the novel, Excess Emotional Baggage.
Interests include :
1) Internatinal Education and Teaching English as a Second or other Language,
2)refugee concerns and refugee resettlement,
3)self defense and martial arts,
4) Asian culture and history,
5) censorship controversies
6) the skeptical examination of paranormal and pseudo-scientific claims.
Education includes a master's degree in East Asian Studies from Cornell and a second master's degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University at Albany, party of the New York State SUNY system.
I am not the sailing guy, sports betting guy or the attorney guy. These people who use the name Peter Huston are, presumably, impostors. I am the real
Peter Huston.